#laura harding

“Very early into her affair with Katharine Hepburn, Laura Harding became ‘sickeningly jealous’ of Kate’s devoted attention to Hope Williams. One night after rehearsals, Kate and Laura had a big fight in Kate’s dressing room that was overheard by the stagehands. "If you want and expect monogamy from me,” Kate shouted, “you’ve got the wrong woman. I will go after any woman—or man—I want, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Laura had stormed out of the theater, vowing never to speak to Kate again, although the two women were planning to drive with Luddy and Jack to Fenwick to meet Kate’s parents that weekend.

Hope Williams rejection wasn’t on moral grounds. She was, in fact, a lesbian herself and was actively involved in a torrid romance at the time with Tallulah Bankhead.

It was backstage one night that Beatrice Stewart introduced Kate to the dynamic and colorful Alabama belle, Miss Bankhead herself, who had arrived to pick up her date for the evening, Hope Williams, for a late night party in Harlem. Kate and Tallulah did not spark on their first meeting, although they would know each other “as sort of friends” for decades.“

-FromKatharine the Great (1907-1950) Secrets of a Lifetime–revealed by Darwin Porter